You will need an Nvidia Quadro graphics card that includes a 3-pin stereo connector. (Cards that have stereo controlled through USB do not support OpenGL stereo.) A list of the cards with this capability can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Quadro. We have tested the Quadro FX 4800 and Quadro 5000 in our lab. You can purchase graphics cards online from a number of vendors, for example PNY Technologies.

Quadro graphics cards can be connected to the computer’s motherboard via three types of connection: AGP, PCI and PCI-Express (We are using PCI Express in our lab). Your graphics card needs to be compatible with your motherboard i.e. if you are using a PCI-Express graphics card, your motherboard needs to have the PCI-Express slot. See how to determine graphics card type compatibility.

To connect the graphics card you need a Dual-linked DVI-I cable to connect the graphics card to the display screen. These can be bought from most electronic component vendors. If you want to connect two monitors to your graphics card, the graphics card should have 2 DVI output ports.

You also need the Nvidia 3D Vision Kit which contains the shutter-glasses and IR transmitter that allows the graphics card to communicate with your shutter-glasses. Most of the vendors that sell the Nvidia Quadro cards would also carry the 3D Vision Kit. This is Nvidia’s site for the 3D Vision Kit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_3D_VisionKit_us.html. Even though the site listed Geforce cards as the minimum requirement for the 3D Vision Kit, it should work with your Quadro card since the Quadro line is the more sophisticated version of the two lines of graphics cards.

Here’s an overview on how to connect the 3D Vision Kit. Do not connect the components yet, you will be prompted to do so when running the 3D Vision Wizard.Just read through this section to get an idea of how components should be connected

You should have only ONE monitor connected to the desktop when you are setting up the display. Once you have verified that stereo is working fine, you can add the second monitor. If you have 2 monitors already connected to the desktop, you should remove the second monitor . Your remaining connected monitor should be the one that is connected to your desktop via the dual-link DVI port.

The IR emitter should be in front of your monitor i.e. in an area where it could transmit signals to your 3D glasses when you are sitting in front of the monitor. The second monitor in the picture is not connected to the desktop during the 3D vision setup.

This is your IR-emitter. You should remove the green label when setting up the IR emitter. Ignore the fact that it asks you to insert the CD before plugging in the USB. Our setup failed when we tried that for Quadro.

This image shows the 3-pin stereo cable connected to the IR transmitter.

This image shows how you should connect your 3-pin stereo port to your computer (Click here to see what the Dual-link DVI port looks like before the cable is plugged in)

This image shows the USB connection. The USB cord can be connected to any USB port on your computer.

Be aware that you may have to wait a few seconds before the IR emitter is detected by your computer and turn from red to green.

This is what your IR emitter looks like if it is connected correctly.

This is what your IR emitter looks like when stereo is running.

This is what your glasses look like when they are off. You can turn on your glasses by clicking on the button highlighted in red.

On this screen, under “Global Settings” tab, for the “Global presets”, select “3D App-Default Global Settings”.

Set the “Enable overlay” feature to “Off”

On the same screen, scroll down.

Set the “Stereo – Display mode” feature to “On-board DIN connector (with NVIDIA IR Emitter)” Note: Important part is the “(with NVIDIA IR Emitter)” as there is also a “On-board DIN connector” (without NVIDIA IR Emitter option)

Set the “Stereo – Enable” feature to “On”

Set the “Stereo – Swap eyes” feature to “Off”

Set the “Triple buffering” feature to “On”

Set the“Vertical sync” feature to “Use the 3D application setting”

Click Apply (the button at the lower right corner of the NVidia Control Panel).

To verify that you have stereo working correctly you can download oglplane. Double-click on the downloaded file. If stereo is working, you should see a a single-line wireframe. If it is not working, you will see a double-line wireframe. It is normal for your monitor to flash once when switching to stereo and once when switching back from stereo.

Once you have verified that oglplane is running correctly, you can be assured that your stereo setup is complete.

Optional: Shut down the computer, plug in your second monitor via DisplayPort and Dual-link DVI to DisplayPort adapter if you have one. Start up the computer. Verify that stereo is still working. If not, check the refresh rate of your monitor. Occasionally the refresh rate switches back to 60Hz if you restart your desktop.

Do you have multiple monitors connected to your graphics card? Try disconnecting all of the monitors except the main monitor. Set up stereo and then connect the other monitors.

Have you changed the refresh rate of your monitor to be at least 120Hz ? Occasionally the refresh rate switches back to 60Hz if you unplug one of your monitors or if you restart your desktop. A symptom of this issue would be flickering monitors.

Try charging the 3D Vision Glasses. (Connect the glasses to the USB port of your computer via the USB cable while your computer is turned on). Make sure that your glasses are turned on before starting the stereo application.

Always go back to the NVidia Control Panel to check that the 3D Application Settings have not been changed if something goes wrong.

Map of symptoms to possible causes/solutions:

Even NVidia 3D Vision demo is not running in stereo.

Something went really wrong during your driver installation step. Please verify that there is something really wrong with your stereo setup before running the following steps.

Uninstall all NVidia drivers from your computer. To uninstall a program, Click Start. Click Control Panel. Click Uninstall a program. You will have to repeat this for all the NVidia drivers on your computer.

to the -Device- section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. This will permanently uncheck -Force Fill GPU scaling- and let you set a refresh rate.

Q) Everything is plugged in, but the emitter is always blinking red. What could be going on?

A) It may be that the stereo driver has failed to load during X11 startup. Look at the /var/log/Xorg.0.log and search for -stereo- I may report that stereo failed to load becasue it confliced with the compositing extension. In that case,

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "off"
EndSection

in your xorg.conf will fix it.

Q) How do I enable the driver for the stereo emitter?

A) The “Stereo” option under the screen section of your xorg.conf will set it. Look at …/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README.txt for details. “10″ means NVIDIA 3D Vision (infrared emitter and glasses). “11″ means NVIDIA 3D VisionPro (the (presumably more expensive) radio emitter and glasses).

Q) It still doesn’t work! I run a stereo application, I see double on my monitor, but the emitter doesn’t turn bright green. What could be happening?

A) The emitter may not be getting a good timing signal from the video card. It may be that one of the three pins in the 3-pin cable is bent or broken. Inspect the cable and then be sure that it is snugly plugged in.

Q) I’m having trouble installing the NVidia driver in RHEL6. How do I completely disable the Nouveau driver?

A) Check two things. First, a file in the directory /etc/modprobe.d/ should contain the lines

In Windows 7, click Start. In the “Search programs and files” input box, type Run ImageSurfer with Stereo and Tracker Support. Click on the link that says “Run ImageSurfer with Stereo and Tracker Support”
or

StereoSpin a program that displays stereo images from a spinning-loop video, making it easy to display stereo content from scientific visualizations or animations that were not originally rendered in stereo. You can download the latest version of StereoSpin from here.

Drag a video file or image file onto the desktop icon that was created when the program was installed. To select a stack of image files that are numbered consecutively, drag any one of the files onto the icon. video
or

ParaView is a general-purpose visualization program developed at Sandia National Laboratories and Kitware. It is more complicated than the CISMM-supported ImageSurfer and Stereo Spin programs described above. It provides the ability to load additional file formats and do more flexible data conversion and display.

A 3DTV that implements “Checkerboard stereo”*. We used the Samsung PNC8000.

If you are using a Nvidia Geforce graphics card, a HDMI cable.

If you are using a Nvidia Quadro graphics card, a HDMI cable and a DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter.

*Due to the plethora of 3DTVs in the market, we are not able to test everyone of them to determine what type of stereo display is available on each model. We tested the Lg LX6500 and found the checkerboard to be less than satisfactory. The Panasonic Viera does not have Checkerboard stereo.

The long answer is: You will not need a 3D Vision Kit to run the applications on your 3DTV (because the 3D Vision Kit does not work on your 3DTv). You will need to use the 3D glasses that are compatible with your 3DTv. You will not be able to run quad-buffered stereo on your 3DTv.

If the application that you are running (e.g. ParaView/ImageSurfer/Stereo Spin) can produce a 3D format (side-by-side/checkerboard/top-bottom/interleaved) that is compatible with your 3DTv (this depends on the cable input port of your Tv, the latest cable format is HDMI 1.4), then you can run the application in 3D.

The caveat is you have to accept lower resolution and half the frequency:

The graphics card will be sending 60Hz to the LCD 3DTv (60Hz for the left eye and 60Hz for the right eye but at half the resolution i.e. 720p instead of 1080p).

In comparison, the graphics card sends 120Hz at full resolution (1080p) to the stereo-capable LCD monitor at 60Hz for the left eye and 60Hz for the right eye.

I have a 120Hz HDTv with HDMI ports. Can I use it to run ParaView in 3D?

If your HDTv is not specified as 3D-Ready by its manufacturer, it means that it does not have its own IR emitter and 3D glasses, so it is incapable of displaying 3D stereo unless if you tamper with the hardware.

I see severe ghosting (double images) at the top part of my screen, but the 3D stereo looks fine on other parts of the monitor. What is wrong?